In some point-of-sale systems, at least one element or device in the system may have an optical output device. The optical output device can be a display, or LED, or any other light-emitting source. Point-of-sale systems typically include a computing device having a display, a payment object reader having LEDs, and potentially other devices or elements used in carrying out the point-of-sale transaction. In certain environments, it can be undesirable for different elements to have different display properties, such as brightness of the display and LEDs. For example, in a café at sunset, it is undesirable to have one device with a dim setting while another device has a bright setting. It is further undesirable to need to adjust the display setting of each component individually.